Lectures and seminars Seminar: Dr. Stefaan De Koker
Developing customized LNPs for immunomodulation and gene therapy.
Speaker
Dr. Stefaan De Koker
Etherna Immunotherapies, Belgium.
Title
Developing customized LNPs for immunomodulation and gene therapy.
Host
Samir EL Andaloussi, Division of Biomolecular and Cellular Medicine (BCM), Department of Laboratory Medicine.
About Dr. De Koker
Stefaan De Koker holds a master in Bio-engineering and obtained his PhD at the lab for Molecular Immunology at Ghent University.
September 2016, Stefaan joined etherna, where he leads the Technology and Innovation team. His focus is currently on the design of customized mRNA lipid- based nanoparticles (cLNPs) for immunomodulation, extrahepatic delivery and gene editing.
Throughout his career, Stefaan has had a keen interest in understanding how activation of the innate immune system shapes the adaptive immune system and in translating this knowledge into improved vaccines and immunotherapies for cancer and auto-immune disease. Stefaan became early involved in the mRNA therapeutics field and published seminal papers on the mode-of-action of mRNA vaccines, on the usage of mRNA for cancer therapy and on the development of novel ionizable lipids and delivery vehicles for mRNA therapeutics. Stefaan has authored over 60 publications and is co-inventor on >15 patent applications.